BOCA RATON, FL (April
5, 2007) – The Florida Atlantic University chapter
of Amnesty International will host the annual Florida Amnesty
International State Conference on Saturday, April 7 from 8:30 a.m.
to 5 p.m., in the University Center’s Grand Palm Room, Boca
Raton campus, 777 Glades Road.
“Ending the
Genocide in Darfur” and “The Death Penalty” will
be this year’s central themes.
Workshops on topics
such as Darfur, genocide, lesbian and gay rights, child labor laws
and capital punishment also will be held.

Florida Death Row exonoree Freddie Pitts and Suzanne Bosler, a
victim of a violent crime, from the Murder Victims Families for
Human Rights and Journey of Hope organizations, will be the
featured keynote speakers of “The Death Penalty” event.
“Ending the
Genocide in Darfur” will feature a panel of experts.

Pitts spent more than nine years on Florida’s Death Row for
the 1963 murders of two gas station attendants that he and
co-defendant Wilbert Lee were convicted of committing.
Both Pitts and Lee
were pardoned in 1975.

Bosler and her father, Rev. Billy Bosler, were
attacked in a church parsonage by an intruder on December 22, 1986.
Rev. Bosler was stabbed 24 times, and Suzanne, in an effort to help
him, was stabbed in the back and head.
Following her
father’s death, Suzanne worked for more than 10 years to try
and spare the life of his murderer, James Bernard Campbell, because
her father had once told Suzanne he would not want his killer to
receive the death penalty. She voiced her opposition to the death
penalty throughout three trials and two sentencings, and was
successful on June 13, 1996, when Campbell was sentenced to three
consecutive life terms.

Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who
campaign for internationally recognized human rights and focus on a
universal vision of a world in which every person enjoys all of the
human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and other international human rights’ standards. With 1.8
million members worldwide, the organization is located in more than
150 countries and territories.